One of the most important areas for food preparation is to sprout your grains. This is in essence a process of pre-digestion and thus optimizes assimilation for you and your tummy. This doesn’t mean that little sprouts will appear. But it does mean pre-soaking all grains like barley, wheat, buckwheat, rice, millet, amaranth, quinoa, and oats for 7-12 hours in pure water before cooking and then cook over the lowest possible heat once brought to a gentle boil. You can add 4 tablespoons of fresh squeezed lemon juice to the soaking grains or apple cider vinegar or liquid whey which helps to ferment the grains and sprout them. This allows the grains to open and soften and release their nutritional benefits more fully for better absorption and easier digestion.
According to some authors, this can help to reduce intestinal inflammation caused by eating unsoaked grains. For example, I like to buy organic whole oats, bake one-half cup of them on a cookie sheet for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Allow to cool for a few minutes and then grind them with a hand mill. Then pre-soak over night in 1 cup of pure water. Then in the morning, I add 1 tablespoon of Bernard Jensen’s 100% Bovine Gelatin to 1 cup of water. Stir thoroughly and add the liquid mix of oats and cook for 10-15 minutes. You can add sliced apple if you like. It’s delicious! Once you get it down, it’s easy to do. Gelatin is excellent for the digestive tract as well as for the health of hair and nails. One of the best books for optimizing nutrition form the foods you eat is Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon with Mary Enig. Next issue, I’ll discuss how to make “Beet Kvass.”
